15
street roots
July 8, 2011
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It’s all out in the open - where it belongs
A
Downtown Chapel program
a breath of fresh air
person in public office recently told
ZJk me, “Street Roots should start
X Xspeaking out more, and stop playing
your cards so closely to your chest Don’t be
afraid to make mistakes.”
The same week a
major funder told me
that in some circles,,
SR is just not going to
get the kind of
support it will take to
B y Israel Bayer
move the organization
to the next level if we
remain so politically
charged. “You do
want to go weekly some day to support the
vendors, right?”
Being an organization that focuses on the
wellbeing of people experiencing
homelessness and poverty through the
sales of the newspaper on one hand, and
producing journalism and an upstream
approach to ending homelessness on the
other, is tricky business.
By the nature of being a newspaper that
publishes news and opinions and having a
vendor program that works with scores of
businesses throughout the city, everything
we do is out in the open. When something
goes wrong on the streets, or our reporting
challenges the status quo; for better or
worse, it’s all on display.
It’s easy to be critical of an organization
like SR for not being mainstream enough,
or for being too radical. We welcome i t If
people weren’t being critical of our work I
would begin to worry. We know people are
reading and paying attention when they are.
SR’s first cue always comes from the
streets. Both the vendors and the many
sources we speak with throughout the city
are the organization’s eyes and ears. We
work hard to balance the reality of the
streets with an understanding of the big
picture. We aren’t afraid to push it to the
hilt and to challenge or praise the outcomes
created by groups and institutions working
with poverty. We expect the same in return.
Look for an on-line readers survey in
August, and please feel free to write a letter
to the editor at streetrootsnews@gmail.com.
We look forward to hearing from you.
study just over two years ago on the vulnerability of
people experiencing homelessness in Portland
showed a high rate of people with multiple health
problems - combinations of mental and health
complications, histories of addiction and simply living at
high risk of violence on the streets.
We know from our series of reports by Street Roots on
Israel Bayer is the
executive director o f
traumatic brain injuries and homelessness that such
Street Roots. You can
conditions routinely go undiagnosed, and are often
reach him at
streetroots@hotmail.com.
aggravating factors toward other afflictions. Imagine if
first responders (medics, police and fire, etc.) had the
ability to know that a person is diabetic, on medication,
or has had a serious brain
injury in the past? The
The Vial of Life
chances that person
program is not
receiving the right health
revolutionary in the
care are far greater, and the
housed world, but when costs associated with
applied to people living misdiagnoses are much
on the streets, it's a
less.
LETTERS
breakthrough in an
It seems so simple, and
otherwise catch-as-
often some of the best
Officer’s snap judgements miss m ark on Copwatch
catch-can world of
steps forward are: A bright
street health care.
red pouch containing basic
e are not sure who approached
issue of brain trauma among long-term
health information to give
Officer (Robert) Pickett and
homeless. Discovery, and getting a true
any medic or caregiver
accused him of harassing a man on sense of the damage, is difficult without
clues to a person’s medical situation when the individual
the street, (“Street Blues”, June 10) but records.
it
When the trauma is sustained in
in need is unable to voice it themselves. It’s not
was likely not someone who was on an numerous locations around the country and
revolutionary in the housed world, but when applied to
organized Portland Copwatch patrol nor
over an extended period of time, the
someone who had taken our “How to
problem is even greater. What’s a healthy
people living on the streets, it’s a breakthrough in an
Copwatch” training. If Pickett’s description
brain when the trauma has been the norm
otherwise catch-as-catch-can world of street health care.
is accurate^ the „person he describes didn’t
for years? But awareness by those
TheVialofTSeprogram (highlighted on page 1)
even wait 10 seconds, got directly involved
concerned for the homeless is a critical
undertaken by the Archdiocese of Portland’s Downtown
in the incident, and potentially escalated the piece and SR has certainly helped with that.
Chapel is taking an old-fashioned approach — by today’s
incident. Our training instructs people to
WHAT DO
It’s perverse that the person suffering is
come on the scene and observe, not
"digital standards - to helping people experiencing
often unaware of what they’re experiencing.
YOU THINK?
interfere, and not to assume who’s right and
homelessness improve their health care.
It also goes without saying how single
who’s wrong. For those interested in
The program provides a means for people living on the
payer, “Medicare For AU,” would aUeviate
Street Roots
receiving our training, send an email to
much of the problem for homeless suffering
streets to keep on hand documentation of their health
encourages readers
trainings@porflandcopwatch.org.
brain trauma- who by definition are obscure
conditions, medical requirements, medications, etc. It
It is unfortunate that Officer Pickett, who
to submit letters and
but who nonetheless have as much a right
comes with the back-up provision that if that information
has a good reputation on the streets, chose
columns for
to healthcare as anyone. Thanks to Kate
his parting article to take a swipe at our
is lost, as it often is on the streets through theft,
publication. Send
Cox and Susan Brownhill for their
organization,
and
to
focus
mostly
on
the
vandalism and property seizure, it can be replaced,
letters to the editor
contribution.
risks police officers take rather than the
because the records are on file at the Downtown Chapel.
JAYTHIEMEYER
to the Street Roots
reality that many officers engage in
Portland
Simple, but powerful and life saving.
office, 211 NW Davis misconduct from rudeness to racial profiling
We shine a light on this program in the shadow of
to misuse of deadly force- We’ve always held
St., Portland, OR
government budget cuts, and the widening gap between
that the best officers are the ones willing to
97209, or e-mailed
Increase in homelessness calls for
the rising number of people in poverty and homelessness
blow the whistle on the bad ones. The
to streetrootsnews®
renewed effort on tent cities
recent lawsuit by a former recruit in which
and the limitations of those programs established to
gmaii.com.
her claims were not validated by a court is
It is disheartening for me to read your
provide relief.
only the most recent example of how cop
Each budget cycle, the social service network of Oregon
article on the 8 percent rise in
whistleblowers are treated.
takes the hit. Services not just for people and families in
homelessness. A deeper reading shows they
We do appreciate those officers who are
admit many time the numbers may be
poverty, but the elderly, the disabled and those with
willing to talk down potentially suicidal
mental and physical health conditions are consistently on
higher.
people rather than shooting, beating, or »
Being homeless, I was interviewed
the chopping block. These are systems that keep people
hitting them with Tasers, and would suggest
living independently, and buoy those through the
that an outcome where both the civilian and leaving jail after an unlawful arrest The
foUowing week, I interviewed many people
the officer can go home at night should be
economic and unemployment slump, enabling them to
with the first question: Did you sleep
the goal for everyone.
preserve their housing, find employment, and keep their
DAN HANDELMAN
outside last night? 75 said yes. Next
children safe and healthy and out of the grips of
Portland Copwatch
question: Did you participate in the
homelessness. It’s an argumentative process that pits
homeless survey? 15 said yes. This “survey”
need against need, and the needy against everyone else
missed 80 percent
• In this edition, Rep. Mitch Greenlick (D-Portland) said
ickett chose to jab at a Portland
The guardians of “public” land, cities,
of the recently passed state budget, “We have three basic
Copwatch member in his last column.
counties, metro, and schools are
While the questioning may have
things to do as a state. We have to educate our
unempathizingly stringy. If land cannot be
seemed overzealous, remember that six
population. We have to fund public safety, and we have to
given, it must be seized in the name of
people were killed in 2010 by Portland cops. human dignity. We need land to create 200
care for the most vulnerable among us, who can not care
If we want a democratic, just, civil society, it Dignity ViUages. Catch the magnitude?
for themselves.” Greenlick went on to say that we now
is vital that people hold our police force
All over the nation these village birthing
provide for our most vulnerable with whatever is left over
accountable for their actions.
processes have been a fight, including our
after other programs are determined, saying „ We are
ANNEIAFLEUR
Dignity Village and three 100-person
Portland
basically failing our most vulnerable citizens.
villages
in Seattle. All seized land.
That’s what makes the Downtown Chapel s Vial of Life
My goodness, we have 200 villages to
Traumatic brain injuries series
program such a refreshing change from the no
find land for, let’s get it on and get em’ off.
S e e s , no capacity” line. U t us all learn by example.
■
K
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reflects on insurance woes
SR’s writers have done a great service by
drawing attention to the largely invisible
Cooperation o r ...?
MIKE O'CALLAGHAN
Portland
STREET ROOTS’ EDITORIAL BOARD
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